José Luis Acquaroni (1919–1983) was a Spanish writer. He was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, although he went to

Sanlúcar de Barrameda Sanlúcar de Barrameda (), or simply Sanlúcar, is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposit ...

at a young age, where he spent his childhood and part of his youth.

Work

His novel ''Copa de sombra'' (Shadow Cup), which received the National Book Award in the Fiction category in 1977, has, as its starting point, a list of those executed during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

in "Puerto de Santa María de Humeros," imaginary place name behind which the book is hidden in the town of

. This list of those executed is taken from the diary of local historian Manuel Barbadillo. ''Copa de sombra'', whose title comes from a poem by Antonio Machado, apart from being brilliantly written, has as its backdrop, the cruelty of war, the misery of the postwar era, the political and

sexual repression Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality. Sexual repression is often linked with feelings of guilt or shame being associated with sexual impulses. Defining characteristics and practices ass ...

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

and the social and economic changes of the Spanish Transition. Furthermore, open criticism of the demagoguery of politicians, postmodernism and the voracity with which it destroys the traditional identity of societies is evident.

Awards

*National Fiction Prize (Ministry of Culture) in 1977 for ''Copa de sombra'' *Golden Money Box Award in 1968 - Stories *1967 Blasco Ibanez Award for ''El turbión'' (The storm) *1955 Ateneo Prize - Short Stories *1954 Insula Award - Short Stories *1954 Camilo José Cela Prize - Stories *1952 Silver Award - Stories

References

External links

Pérez del Prado, Santiago. "La casa de "Copa de sombra" (The home of Shadow Cup) in Acquaroni I". Sanlúcar de Barrameda: Recóndita ciudad. 2007 (in Spanish)
1919 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Spanish writers 20th-century Spanish male writers {{Spain-writer-stub